The present invention relates to a visor assembly and particularly to a control for releasably locking a visor in a stored position.
Visor assemblies for use in vehicles such as automobiles, typically use a friction mechanism between the pivot rod and the visor body to allow the visor to be adjusted to a desired rotational position about the visor rod and be held in that position. The friction mechanism must, however, permit relatively easy adjustment of the visor and yet hold the visor in a desired position. With such frictional devices, as the vehicle travels along the highway, the visor can slip down from the stored position and not only become somewhat unsightly, but if lowered sufficiently, can project horizontally and present a safety hazard to the passengers within the vehicle in the event of an accident.
Some visors, such as European-type visors, have a wire rod frame and are filled with foam material. Such visor construction is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,054 and employs a lightweight clip which encircles the pivot rod and which selectively engages flats on either side of this pivot rod to hold the visor in a predetermined position. An improved visor control is disclosed in a commonly assigned patent application, Ser. No. 273,644, filed on June 15, 1981 and entitled VISOR CONTROL, of which I am co-inventor. This visor control is somewhat expensive and requires an assembly tool to spread the spring arms for mounting the visor on the pivot rod and cannot be hand assembled as can the control of the present invention.